SINGAPORE (ICIS)--Qatar Petroleum and Shell have signed a heads of agreement to develop a world-scale petrochemicals complex in ?xml:namespace>Qatar for an estimated cost of $6.4bn (€4.8bn), the two firms said on Sunday.

Qatar Petroleum will have an 80% equity interest in the project and Shell will have the remainder, the two companies said in a statement .

The heads of agreement sets the scope and commercial principles for the development of the complex, which will include a world-scale steam cracker that will use feedstock from natural gas projects in Qatar, the companies said.

A monoethylene glycol (MEG) plant with up to 1.5m tonnes/year of capacity is also under consideration, according to the companies.

The new complex will be able to produce 300 kilotonnes/year of linear alpha olefins, they said.